Mormon Culture Tournament – Round 2 part 3

Well, I learned some thing last week. First the polls had roughly 150 votes each after the first 48 hours, then gained roughly 20 more votes each over the next three days. Therefore, polls will now last 48 hours (assuming that I have time to keep up). Keep that in mind. Also, people love Cheerios more than having food delivered to their homes. Craziness, I tell you!

The winners from last time are: 9. Dear John Letters (beating 1. Arnold Friberg), 5. The Cultural Hall, 7. Cheerios in Sac Meeting, and 4. Temple Square. Take that, the Christus! We like our spaces big, spare, and featuring basketball lines on the floor!

Today’s combatants are:
1. Steve Young vs. 8. For the Strength of Youth

Steve Young ran over UNO for the win, 79-21. Meanwhile, For the Strength of Youth left Cipher in the Snow out in the cold (where he dies mysteriously) to the tune of 75-25.My prediction: Young leads his team to victory, leading to the youth watching tv on the Sabbath, natch.

Dancing Book of Mormon length apart kept its distance from Lock your Heart, 58-42. Asking out with clues simply told Ken Jennings “no,” 57-43.My prediction: Almost too close to call. I think that dancing maintains its chastity by never responding to the first clue.

Pioneer Day drug a handcart over Moving Holidays off of Sunday, 76-24. The 3 Nephites left Handcart Reenactments in a cove in Wyoming to die (and then get picked up by their leaders later in the day), 52-48.My prediction: Everyone loves a parade!

My brief argument for Steve Young: he is the public face of Mormonism. Far more people know about Steve Young than know about President Hinckley. Far more people know about Steve Young than know about Mitt Romney (at this point at least). When people are randomly picking Mormons out of the air, Steve Young is one of the first people they come up with. He is the handome, smiling, smarmy heart of the perception of the church throughout the USA.

Wow, I am totally apathetic for this segment. Maybe I want for the Strength of the Youth to win, but isn’t that a foregone conclusion? (Still smarting at the cultural hall and cheerios victories from last round)

Cheers for 3 Nephite Stories! Both Pioneer Day and 3 Nephite Stories are fascinating relics of Wasatch Mountain culture that are wildly out of place in today’s global church — but of the two out-of-place relics, 3 Nephite Stories are more fun! More supernatural, more folkloric, more likely to involve demons… What’s not to love?

That’s a good argument to make, but I guess I see Steve Young as a fad, culturally speaking that is. Maybe it is that out here on the East Coast, you hardly ever hear of him (and granted when people out here talk about Mormons, certainly For the Strength of Youth is not the first thing that comes to their minds either). I think this is another case that highlights the very Mountain West-bias of the “Mormon culture” at this point.

I voted for Strength of Youth. Its teachings and importance will remain with us long after Steve Young (great guy that he is since he is a distant relative) is no longer that important. Steve would probably agree with my sentiment.

I voted for Heck and Flip. Here is TX Green Jello is not standard fare at a ward dinner. And I use the LDS swear words all the time anyway.

You have to have gone to one of the BYU schools to exp all the crazy dating scenarios. I went Big Ten and voted for the BOM apart.

Pioneer day vs 3 nephite stories. Pioneer day will be with much longer then the slowly going out of style 3 nephites

Despite my flipping desire to support all the dang fake swear words (my coworkers now say “curses” and “dirty rotten”) I had to support the jello… but only because I once saw hot dogs floating in some at Break the Fast in my YSA ward.

It was a tight one between the Pioneer day and 3 nephites. Although just the other day I told a 3 nephite story, and used them in a joke. Ultimately I thought Pioneer day to be more widely known as representation of the culture. Think about the recent Anthemm Faith in Every Footstep.

My former boss, a Brooklyn Jew who endured 3 good-bagel-less years living in SLC in the 80s, insisted that I have Pioneer Day off as a religious holiday. I responded that Pioneer Day was more of a state holiday that a religious one and she shot back, “and in Utah the difference is?” Can’t argue with that logic.

She says that has holiday envy because Pioneer day falls right between 4th of July and Labor day — a midsummer holiday right when you need one.

Re: elaborate date request rituals and BOM-width separated dancing – the date rituals are a Mormon culture region phenomenon (confined to Utah, Idaho, parts of Arizona, and maybe part of SoCal), while all teens in the church have scriptures. Hence, the Book of Mormon thing is more representative of the church :).

Ann #18: We do too! Every year my ward here in Ontario has a picnic down at a local park. The ward I grew up in in Maryland did stuff too, though I don’t remember what. I do remember wearing pioneer clothes to church that Sunday. (I think it was just because my mom liked the excuse to dress me up.)

Is pioneer day really more representative of the church? I grew up hearing 3 Nephite stories. I went to Utah as a 15 year old and had to ask someone why the fireworks stands were still open after the 4th.

My votes as a new convert (I first set foot in a chapel 6 months ago):

Steve Young – I’ve actually heard of him
Euphemisms – I’m not too crazy about Jello which doesn’t really seem to show up at my stake anyway, but when we decided to take lasagna, there were several others with the same idea. (I’m in WV)

No vote on the 3rd question. I have never experienced Mormon-style dating, and I figure it’s too late now that I’m already married.

Pioneer Day – I don’t know enough about this. Am I correct in assuming that this pertains to the voyage to Utah? That’s a huge event in Church History, so I’ll go with that.

Pioneer Day celebrates the day that the pioneers first set foot in the Salt Lake valley (July 24). It is a state holiday in Utah and is often celebrated outside of Utah as a church activity (we had a rodeo and barbeque growing up in northern Florida).

Kulturblog

Time to update Susan’s post from August of 07. “They say that these are not the best of times, But they’re the only times I’ve ever known. And I believe there is a time for meditation In cathedrals of our own.” -Billy Joel, Summer Highland Falls

NOTE: This is an essay I wrote as an undergraduate at the University of Utah almost thirty years ago. I am republishing it here as a remembrance of my favorite professor, Mark Strand, upon the occasion of his passing. Come from the four winds, O breath, and breathe upon these slain, that they may live… […]